Hearing parents with deaf children

Every month in the UK about 70 children are born either moderately or profoundly deaf, and a further 40 children under 16 will be deafened, usually because of a medical problem.

But the vast majority – 90 per cent – of parents of deaf children are not deaf, so many hearing parents have little or no experience of deafness, or how to bring up a deaf child.

One of their most common concerns is about how to best communicate with their child. Some of the most Frequently Asked Questions about communication are answered in this section.

The Signed Stories website opens up the possibilities and benefits of using BSL to enhance communication.

All human beings communicate using gesture and facial expression. Rather than invent your own family sign language, it makes more sense to teach a sign system which can be used with others.

BSL is a tried, tested and respected language – recognised by the UK government. Basic BSL is easy to learn. You don’t need to know the signs for every word in a book – or to be fully fluent in BSL - before you can tell a story to your child.

Stories told in BSL don’t follow the text word for word. So if you don’t know the sign for a certain word, try drawing a picture, write the word down, fingerspell it or act it out.

What’s important is that you and your child understand each other and you both enjoy stories. Read more about storytelling here. And find out more about BSL here.

And remember that sign is a visual language. We’ve also included advice on how to use the best body language, which is on the next page.